Agenda and minutes

Minutes of meeting held on Thursday 13^th September 2012 (previously circulated).

The minutes of the previous meeting were agreed as a correct record.

There were no items of urgent business.

To receive declarations by Members of interests in respect of items on this Agenda. 

Members are reminded that, in accordance with the Localism Act 2011, they are required to declare any disclosable pecuniary interests which have not already been declared in the Council’s Register of Interests. (It is a criminal offence not to declare a disclosable pecuniary interest either in the Register or at the meeting). 

Whilst not a legal requirement, in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 10 and in the interests of clarity and transparency, Members should declare any disclosable pecuniary interests which they have already declared in the Register, at this point in the meeting. 

In accordance with Part B Section 2 of the Code Of Conduct, Members are required to declare the existence and nature of any other interests as defined in paragraphs 8(1) or 9(2) of the Code of Conduct. 

There were no declarations of interest.

Report of the Head of Governance.

The Senior Democratic Support Officer introduced a report on the timetable of meetings for the 2013/14 municipal year.

It was noted that the committee’s views were sought on whether Special Council meetings should be timetabled on an annual or biennial basis, and whether the recent changes made to the start times of Personnel Committee and Standards Committee be continued into 2013/14.

In the course of discussion, members expressed their thanks to officers for arranging a successful Special Council meeting with young people from around the district on Wednesday 17^th October.

To keep Special Council events fresh, it was suggested that they continue to be held on alternate years, and that consideration should be given to holding the next event with young people.

It was agreed that meetings due to be held at Lancaster Town Hall at 6pm would be rescheduled to 6.10pm to allow Members to take advantage of cheaper car parking rates.

Resolved:

1)         That the next Special Council meeting be held in October 2014

2)         That the committee timetable and meeting times for 2013/14 be approved, as appended to these minutes, including later start times for evening meetings at Lancaster Town Hall, from 6pm to 6.10pm.

Report of the Monitoring Officer.

The Democratic Services Manager introduced a report about the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Meetings and Access to Information) (England) Regulations 2012, which had been introduced by government and had a direct impact on the council’s rules of procedure.

It was noted that the new regulations affected Cabinet and any Cabinet committees, and required the council to:

-                      give 28 days notice to exclude the press and public from a meeting.  An additional notice would need to be published five days before the meeting, which gave details of any representations which asked for the item to be discussed in public, and the response of the decision-making body;

-                      replace the Forward Plan with new notice requirements of 28 days for key decisions;

-                      make background papers available online and at the council’s offices for executive decisions made by Cabinet;

In the course of discussion, it was noted that the new regulations would not affect the Council’s call-in procedures.

Resolved:

(1)                 That the requirements of the new legislation be noted.

(2)                 That the necessary changes to Part 4, Section 2 of the Constitution (as appended to these minutes) be approved and that any necessary consequential textual changes to other parts of the Constitution be made by the Monitoring Officer.

Report of the Head of Governance.

The Democratic Services Manager introduced an update report on the Boundary Commission for England’s consultation on revised proposals for parliamentary constituency boundaries.

The Commission’s initial proposals were to extend the Morecambe and Lunesdale constituency to 20 wards to include the Lower Lune Valley ward, which was currently a part of the Lancaster and Fleetwood constituency.  In addition, there was a proposal to replace the Lancaster and Fleetwood constituency with a Lancaster constituency that would contain the remaining eight wards in Lancaster, plus ten wards in the Borough of Wyre, two wards from the City of Preston, and five wards in the Borough of Ribble Valley.

It was noted that the council’s response to the initial proposals, agreed by this committee, stated that the revised proposals for Lancaster would present a considerable administrative challenge.

The Boundary Commission had subsequently made revisions to its proposals for the Lancaster constituency, revising the name to the Lancaster and Wyre constituency.    However, the administrative burden of the revised constituency was considered to be only slightly less of an administrative challenge than the initial proposals.  It was made up of wards in the boundaries of Lancaster City Council, Wyre Borough Council, and Preston City Council.

The committee noted a draft response from officers which highlighted the administrative complications of the proposed constituency, and proposed an alternative constituency with wards drawn solely from land in the boundaries of Lancaster City Council and Wyre Borough Council.

It was noted that political groups may wish to make their own submissions to the consultation.

Resolved:

That the draft response to the Boundary Commission be approved and submitted on behalf of the Council. 

Report of the Democratic Services Manager.

The Democratic Services Manager introduced a report, resulting from a request from a councillor, asking the Committee to consider amending Council Procedure Rule 13.6 to increase the number of supplementary questions which members were allowed to ask at meetings of Council. Rule 13.6 restricted Members to one supplementary question without notice following a question on notice.

During the course of discussion, members agreed that one supplementary question was sufficient.

Resolved: 

That no changes be made to Council Procedure Rule 13.6.

Referral from the Budget and Performance Panel.

The Democratic Services Manager introduced a referral report from the Budget and Performance Panel asking the committee to consider the procedure for dealing with urgent business, call-in, and the waiver of call-in.

Councillor Mace proposed that “We ask that the city constitution no longer provides power for the Chief Executive to override any decision of the Chairman of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee not to agree to the waiver of call-in, and that call-in may only be waived where the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee are in agreement that call-in be waived.”

In the course of discussion, members questioned what would happen if either the Chairman or Vice-Chairman of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee was unavailable, and it was noted that the Mayor and Deputy Mayor, in that order, could be consulted.   ‘Unavailable’ in this context would be defined as unable to be contacted within six hours.

In addition, it was agreed to precede Councillor Mace’s suggestion with the words: “On the basis that officers advise and members decide…”.

The Committee agreed that the proposal should be referred to Council for consideration with the comments of the Monitoring Officer included in the report. 

Councillor Mace then set out two proposals for amending the current call-in arrangements. 

The first was a request for “a report on options for the amendments to the call-in process so that an additional (less technical and confrontational) reason for rethinking a cabinet decision could be created, such as one loosely based on the old procedure (standing order 23 under the former committee system) for ‘reference up of decisions’ to Council.” (old standing order 23 was circulated at the meeting and is appended to these minutes.)

The second stated that “the simplest way of achieving the opportunity for a wider debate on an issue, potentially leading to a recommendation from Council to Cabinet, (similar to one of the options under the current call-in rules) (if it is legally acceptable as a permitted element in the City’s Constitution) would be for implementation of a Cabinet decision to be suspended pending the outcome of an extraordinary council meeting summoned under procedure rule 3.1 to debate a motion put forward within the normal call-in period – but under conditions of support similar to rule 19.1. This would be additional to the present rules.”

Information relating to the two proposals was circulated and it was noted that procedure rule 3.1 required five Members of Council to request that the Mayor hold an extraordinary meeting of Council and procedure rule 19.1 required at last 15 Members (being a quorum of Council) to move a motion to rescind a decision made at a meeting of Council within the last six months.

Members agreed that both proposals would require a report back to the Committee from the Monitoring Officer to assess their feasibility.

Resolved:

(1)                 That officers refer the following proposal regarding the waiver of call in to Council for consideration:

“On the basis that officers advise and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17.

Report of the Democratic Services Manager.

The Democratic Services Manager introduced a report on amendments to the Constitution regarding the required deadlines, set out in Council Procedure Rule 14, for members of the public to submit a request to address a Council meeting.

It was noted that members considered this item at the previous meeting, where it was felt appropriate to extend the deadline to noon on the third working day before the meeting.

The Committee was presented with the amended Constitution and revised guidance document for the public.

Resolved:

1)         That the Constitution be revised as shown at Appendix 1 to the report and appended to these minutes.

2)         That the current guidance leaflet for the public, available on the council’s website and supplied on request to the public, be replaced with the revised version, shown at Appendix B of the report.

There were no requests for appointments or changes to committee membership.